As we get closer to the May 1-2 Digital Revenue Summit in Chicago, we’ll profile some of the winners from our Digital Innovation Awards contest. Some of the winners from that contest will present at the conference.

Today, we’ll feature Jason Holmes, Co-Founder & President, Affect Digital (Victoria Advocate). They won for best digital agency under $5 million in revenue.

Name: Jason Holmes

Title: Co-Founder & President, Affect Digital (Victoria Advocate)

Tell us a little about the structure and services your agency is offering? Our core team consists of more than a dozen specialists. This includes media consultants, social media specialists, developers and designers. Having this depth of experience and skill allows our team to dig deeper and provide the correct solution for a given goal. No-one on our team has print or traditional media responsibilities. We are vertically aligned to provide best of breed solutions from the account executive through the production team.

Early on we decided to take a results-first approach and focus on the customers’ goals, building all solutions or campaigns with the end in mind. I think this sounds so logical but it is very difficult to systematically do in today’s media landscape. The internal pressure is just too great. Publishers are struggling to immediately replace lost publishing or broadcast dollars and want an easy, high margin fix. The agency business doesn’t work that way. You have to actually solve problems for local businesses. Sometimes the problem you’re charged with solving is reducing their traditional media spend.

Our agency is a full-service marketing firm specializing in digital. As such we offer all of the usual digital products as well as traditional media creative, placement and complete budget planning as a service.

What do you think is making it so successful? Frankly, intense focus on not being a typical “digital arm” of a media company. “Digital arms” get cut off and can’t compete against pure play solutions providers. We have been singularly driven to be the best independent marketing firm we can possibly be. We’re following the shift and steady flow to digital instead of fighting the current. It’s not enough to say “we can do that too…” We believe that in order to win business in this space we’ve got to understand the clients’ goals, budget and other struggles within their business. We still meet business owners that are terrified to cut YP spending or think they have to buy live TV in order to be successful. Once you prove to them that you can be more efficient with their investment and earn their trust the conversation becomes more strategic than a sales call.

What’s next for your agency? We plan to aggressively grow in each of the markets we serve in East Texas and South Texas, growing both current accounts and seeking new customers.

While digital video has been part of our offering for years we believe that the disruption in traditional video is speeding up. The audience has already shifted and local businesses are coming to terms with this. Broadcast and cable budgets are sure to follow. Managing this transition presents a unique opportunity.

We are also particularly excited about AgencyQue, our workflow and agency management solution, as a product line. We are delighted that this product has also been recognized by the LMA and we believe there is a strong need in the marketplace for this solution.